Re: [gtk-list] Re: Widgets Vs Gadgets (Was : map/unmap optimization)

[Des Herriott <des ops netcom net uk>]

On Jul 21, Patrice Fortier wrote:
> > If Gadgets do prove to be lighter in certain situations (I think in Motif the
> >  idea was to use them in menus),
> 
> This was the case for motif, athena & co some years ago, but I don't think
> the problem comes from the menu. The number of entries in a menu is not
> that large (usually < 100). Anyway, as far as I remember the menu items
> are widgets, not gadgets (I'm not at home, so I can hardly check this).
> 
> The problem may occur with widgets with a huge amount of children, like
> clist (or even ctree?), which can have +10.000 entries.
> But I think there are few cases like these (and I hope so, for my 
> computer memory :)).
 
I suspect one of the reasons for using Gadgets was for cases like the
above - since a Widget (which has an X window) requires server-side
resource for each instance, whereas a Gadget is client-side.

This can be important if you're using an X terminal - which tends to
have a limited amount of RAM and no swap space.

I'm not sure just how widespread X terminal use is these days (I
haven't used one for 3 or 4 years), but I think it's still a valid
concern.

-- 
Des Herriott
des@ops.netcom.net.uk